Matt Taibbi, in Rolling Stone, reminds us that “the Russians believed in exceptionalism, too“:
… With his bizarre foot-in-mouth rants about how Barack Obama doesn’t love “America” the way “we” do, Rudy — and other “They hate us!” exceptionalist ‘Muricans like Eric Erickson and Steve Forbes — are starting to remind me of the frightened, denial-sick communist die-hards I knew as a student in Russia.
Not to go too far down memory lane, but in 1990, I went to Leningrad to study. The Soviet empire was in its death throes and most people there, particularly the younger ones, knew it. But some hadn’t gotten the memo yet, and those folks, usually nice enough, often older — university administrators, check-room attendants, security guards, parents of some of my classmates, others — were constantly challenging me and other exchange students to East-versus-West debates, usually with the aim of proving that “their” way of life was better.
By the time I left Russia a dozen years and a couple of career changes later, a lot of those people still hadn’t gotten the memo. They were deep in denial about the passing of the USSR and spent a lot of time volubly claiming ownership of words like we and our and us in a way that quickly became a running joke in modernizing Russia.
U Nas Lusche — roughly, Ours is Better or It’s Better Here — was the unofficial slogan of the pining-for-the-old-days crowd in post-communist Russia….
But the problem with exceptionalism is that it can turn unintentionally comic with the drop of a hat. You’re made to believe you’re at the center of an envious universe, but then the world changes just enough and suddenly you’re a punchline clinging to a lot of incoherent emotions. I watched this happen with my own eyes to a lot of people in the former Soviet Union…
Conservative politicians like Rudy are a bizarre combination of constant, withering, redundant whining about Actual Current America, mixed with endless demands that we all stand up and profess our love for some other America, one that apparently doesn’t include a lot of the rest of us or the things about this country we like.
I feel sorry for Rudy that he can’t love this country the way it is. I love America even with assholes like him living in it. In fact, I’m immensely proud of our assholes; I think America has the best assholes in the world. I defy the Belgians or the Japanese to produce something like a Donald Trump. If that makes me an exceptionalist, I plead guilty.
In all seriousness, the Rudy story is a bummer. It’s not easy to love America and hate half the people who live there. It requires that you spend a lot of time closing your eyes and wishing history had happened differently, which, at least in my limited experience, doesn’t work very well…
Maybe we should add a new category, when Old Man Yells At Clouds isn’t quite enough for the Wingnut Wurlitzer rants about “real Americans”: U Nas Lusche!
Mike J
I’ve gotten that at every office I’ve ever worked at in London.
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: Not Soho vs. Brixton?
Kropadope
@Mike J: Well, we’re distinct from the Russians in that regard. Our “U Nas Lusche” adherents are the ones who believe in the imminent collapse of the U.S. government.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: People wanted to start fights about slavery in America, ignoring the facts that 1) we were British when it started and 2) most of the trade was conducted by the British after we left them. But time and time again, this is something they want to argue.
And of course they tend to think it’s insane that every person no matter how crazy or violent can carry a gun everywhere, but I agree with them on that.
Gravenstone
Apparently Scotty Walker is joining in the “I’m not sure Obama really loves AMERICA” bandwagon.
Keep running your yap Scotty, and I will hunt you down and shove my boot up your ass.
PsiFighter37
America uber alles, bitches
PF37 +12 (I’ve been drinking pretty much straight on since noon….that’s what happens whe n oyu take brweewery tours early in the day(
Omnes Omnibus
@Mike J: I just tried to avoid Brixton unless I was with a Jamaican.
gogol's wife
Should be U nas luchshe
Gravenstone
@PsiFighter37: That’s fairly impressive, even by your standards.
JPL
Eric Jon Engberg was invited on the O’Reilly factor but has refused. Yup that would be fair, having O’Reilly yell in your ear and call you a coward for a hour. Kudos to the former CBS reporter for coming forward, but he is now going to get the full Fox treatment.
RepubAnon
It’s also worth noting that Vladimir Putin uses the same “take our country back” language as conservatives here use. Mr. Putin also routinely talks about the “real” Russians while disparaging the “intelligentsia” (what the US right wingers call the “elite”).
If the Republicans ever remake Star Wars, Darth Vader will be the hero.
yodecat
Fuck Ghoulianie. And the horse he rode in. I like living here in America. But I’ve no use for assholes. Perhaps they’d be good stable muckers, who knows? I don’t care. I’m running out of time.
When does the Star Trek world take take hold? When will science cure madness? Not damned soon enough.
JPL
@RepubAnon: No wonder the patriot Rudy thinks Putin is a real leader.
Mike J
@Omnes Omnibus: I knew a girl who lived there. She always picked better clubs to go to than my friends that lived on the Circle line. Never got anywhere beyond dancing and kief with her, but still fun.
Timurid
I’m half white, but there are still moments when white people absolutely terrify me…
Mike J
@yodecat:
Sometime after the nuclear WWIII in 2049.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
Let us know when you get to +37
PsiFighter37
@Gravenstone: Impresive now that I’m knocking on the door of 30 years old, erphaps.
Yeah, I knoiw I’m younger than pretty much everyone here. Just being a young whippersnapper hwile I can still be consdered one.
@Roger Moore: Not happrning, because a) my wife wil not be poleased with the outco,me if thta happens, and b) I don’t think I can function at those levels of imbiging anymore. Too old. Too creaky.
Roger Moore
@RepubAnon:
Something tells me that when Putin talks about taking the country back, he also means taking it back from those ungrateful Ukrainians, Balts, Poles, etc. who refuse to acknowledge how good they had it back when the Russians were ruling over them.
Mike J
@Roger Moore: In other words, “his country” is the USSR, not Russia.
Roger Moore
@PsiFighter37:
I don’t think I’ve ever seen you +enough to have trouble typing before.
Roger Moore
@Mike J: @Mike J:
I think his country is the Russian Empire, not the Russian Federation.
BillinGlendaleCA
@PsiFighter37:
Hell, you’re younger than my car.
Kropadope
@PsiFighter37: 30s the new 20. I’m 31 and I feel like I’m just getting started.
Ruckus
@Roger Moore:
Too lazy to look but what proceed the Russian Empire? Or does the Russian Empire date back at least 400 yrs?
Steeplejack
Cole post upstairs.
Ruckus
@BillinGlendaleCA:
Not bad, mine is just over half his age and I think that’s way old for a car.
I like that conservatives are always pining for a time which had to be when they were not yet adults and think that was the greatest of times. It must be that the only direction one can see with one’s head up their own ass is backwards. And the only thing they can see in that direction is the shit in their eyes. And yet they’ve convinced themselves that it’s great. Amazing.
Kropadope
@efgoldman: I get that looking at my parents. Approaching 60 and the liveliest I’ve ever seen them. Sometimes things get tough, though.
Ruckus
@efgoldman:
Not quite as experienced as you but I’d agree that some days I hope 95 feels no worse than what I feel, cause…….
Steeplejack
Jesus. Some overzealous a-hole is running a loud gas snowblower up and down the sidewalk outside. WTF?! We didn’t even get that much snow today.
Gin & Tonic
@Ruckus: The Russian Empire dates back to Peter the Great in 1721, but you can logically extend it back to the beginning of the Romanov dynasty in 1613, or back further to Ivan IV or even Ivan III, in the 1450’s, finally throwing off the Mongol dynasty.
Steeplejack (phone)
@efgoldman:
This whole (cul-de-sac) street is a condo association (I’m a renter), and they have a team that is pretty zealous about clearing the snow, but usually it’s more like 6:00 a.m. than close to midnight. And more shoveling and less motorized blowing.
Ah, well, First World problems.
delk
@efgoldman: I used to have a neighbor with a snow blower. He would clear the entire side of our block except for our house. We were gay, he was christian. He also cheated on his wife. Oh, and his HS age daughter got knocked up.
Anne Laurie
@Steeplejack (phone):
Maybe he finally got his hands on a snowblower, and the delight of not having to manually shovel has gone to his head (hopefully temporarily).
You know, Guy with A New Mechanical Toy Syndrome…
sm*t cl*de
A challenge like that is just asking for trouble.
Zinsky
When I hear idiotic pseudo-patriotic comments like Rudy Guiliani’s moronic implication that he is such a “better” American than Barack Obama, I an reminded of Sinclair Lewis’ prescient statement that, “when fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in a flag and carrying a Bible”.
Keith G
@sm*t cl*de:
Yup I think they (the Japanese) had a generation filled with Donald Trumps and we killed them.
RSA
@Zinsky:
Maybe because people like that tend to be conservative Christians, I’m reminded of this: And when you pray, do not be like the hypocrites, for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and on the street corners to be seen by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full.
Kay
I’m sort of mildly curious why they’re rolling out the “we don’t really know Obama” theme again.
It failed in one primary and two consecutive presidential races and it becomes less and less relevant because Obama is termed out and the attack is so personal-it’s about one person- Obama.
Is it some attempt at preemptively directing his legacy, how he’s perceived going forward? It seems utterly ridiculous to continue to insist he “wasn’t vetted” or “there are questions” re: a two-term President. Maybe they just see an opening with Isis to drum up some war fervor and they don’t know how else to approach it.
tybee
@PsiFighter37:
just remember, you can’t get credit for drinking all day unless you start early in the morning.
aimai
@Kay: They go back to the “he wasn’t vetted” meme because what they are really struggling against is the notion that more than half the voting population voted for him precisely because they didn’t have any problem with Obama or his plans for the country. They are still enraged that the voters have changed, that the democratic majority prefers different things from the old white republican majority. And they are in denial about it–both to themselves and to each other. This denial is at the root of the continued attempts to deflect attention from Rudy’s appalling statements by justifying them w/r/t an imaginary voting population that was “deceived.” That makes Rudy, retroactively, their champion rather than someone who is implicitly attacking all Obama’s voters (fellow americans) as just as awful and hateful as Obama himself.
And, of course, as soon as the campaigns really get going we will see the same psychotic split with the Republican candidates attacking both the Democratic candidate and his/her voters in one breath, and urging all voters to “come to the light” and vote right for once in their miserable lives because the Democrat is so evil and the voters are so pure and misled.
RSA
@Kay:
I’m only half-kidding here: I think that the Republican base is a little like John’s new puppies–if you don’t give them something to do, they’ll just start chewing on stuff.
I can’t think of a good reason for these re-runs.
Peale
@Kay: makes no sense to me either. Obama isn’t running next year. They can run in their hatred all they want. I know they want to run on the “restore our national pride” theme because it worked for them before. But I’m surprised they are rolling out the “secret Muslim” stuff again. Do they think people are going to think Hillary and Bill converted?
Mr. Twister
@Peale: It’s a way of bringing down the “brand” of liberal and Democrat. Softening the ground for 2016.
Kay
@Peale:
They might have to revive the Obama hatred to get their voters all riled up for the primaries. I tease Republicans here because the wingnuttiest are still furious. They have Congress! That’s not enough?
Maybe they’re still holding a grudge that he “wasn’t vetted!” :)
It should be interesting because the attack on Clinton is the opposite. We know her too well. She’s “stale”.
It’s like Goldilocks. The Knowing has to be just right.
Kay
@Mr. Twister:
I still think foreign policy/war Republicans resent that they were considered incompetent by the end of Bush. I think they took that very hard.
They don’t mind being called warmongers. They mind being called incompetent warmongers. Bad managers. Poorly performing executives.
Kay
@aimai:
That’s probably true. It’s so funny how perceptions differ because “Rudy” really personifies “shifty politician” to me.
I wouldn’t trust that person as far as I could throw him. I could see electing him for “ruthless” or “self interest may align with mine” but “trust” or “knowing”? No way.
Central Planning
@Kay:
I think they are trying to establish guilt by association. Since Obama, the Democratic president, hates America, doesn’t every Democratic candidate hate America?
debbie
@Kay:
I say, let them keep at it. It’ll wear them out and they’ll have less fury bottled up.
What would really be great would be for the Democrats to get behind a Jewish candidate (of the liberal, self-hating, non-Bibi cloned variety). I swear, the far-right wing’s collective head would explode.
Omnes Omnibus
@debbie:
Unfortunately, it seems to energize them.
debbie
@Omnes Omnibus:
But think of the material it’s giving Obama for his next book.
NonyNony
@Kay:
Because they’re grifters trying to scare the marks into giving them more money, and they know that the Obama gravy train will be drying up shortly?
I assume that’s what Giulianni’s reasoning is – he’s a washed up politician who is now supporting himself via the largesse of the wingnut welfare wagon train. I just assume that everything he does is something that will help Rudy Giulianni make enough scratch to live in the lifestyle he’s become accustomed to for one more month.
samiam
I think Taibbi is just another grifter selling books. So it pains me to admit he has a good point for a change. Donald Trump is a world class asshole that no other country in the world could possible match.
SFAW
@debbie:
Right. And we have, no doubt, finally reached Peak Wingnut.
Some people are adrenaline junkies, wingnuts are rage junkies. Mostly rage-at-everyone-and-everything-they-think-is-not-like-them junkies.
Of course, then you have persons [sic] like Erick-spawn-of-Erick, who are just complete fucking assholes who deserve to have the shit beat out of them on a daily basis (as long as his wife isn’t letting him borrow her shotgun).
But I digress.
SFAW
@NonyNony:
Good one.
Mike in NC
@NonyNony: Rudy was a draft dodger and his dad was a mobster. Why does Rudy hate America?
sdhays
Part of Obama’s magic is that he is, in some ways, Republican kryptonite. They didn’t know how to effectively attack him in 2008 and they still don’t know how to effectively attack him. Clearly, they’re still able to effectively attack programs, policies, and the Democratic Party as a whole, but not Obama himself. I think it’s the racism. So much of their attacks on other Democrats is built on racism and racist dog-whistling, which works because it doesn’t appear as personal. But when it comes to attacking Obama himself, they can’t switch gears, because that’s uncharted territory and if they go with what feels good, it just highlights how horrible the person speaking is.
The agony that they must feel knowing that Obama will end his Presidency with much higher approval ratings than the two Bushes and will be remembered by history as one of our most successful Presidents (which, admittedly, is a rather low bar) drives them so insane that they can’t see straight. And the way he now doesn’t even pretend to care what they say…
Iowa Old Lady
Walker’s inept handling of questions about Giuliani’s comments shows the degree to which he’s not ready for prime time. He’s been sheltered by local conditions. He may learn to manage, but if he doesn’t, and they nominate him, they better be ready for him to embarrass them on regular basis.
Citizen_X
@Mr. Twister:
True. Along the same lines, they’re trying to induce “Obama fatigue” in the media, just like we supposedly had “Clinton fatigue” before. Then we’ll need a republican in the White House, for a change of atmosphere.
Peale
Believing Guiliani has the secret finger in the pulse of how to be ‘one of us,’ Obama will spend his last year in office kicking Michelle out of the white house, introducing us to a mistress who we will have to pretend is the first lady and not talking to his children.
AnonPhenom
@gogol’s wife:
And pronounced phonetically as …
Thanks.
Tree With Water
Taibbi’s take on the son of a draft dodging felon (“no, I don’t have to go, I was convicted under an alias and I can prove it”) is very similar to my reaction in the bygone days when it was “morning in America”, and it was said of Ronald Reagan that he “restored pride in America”.
Implicit in those vacuous, feel good inanities is the accusation that I had lived in darkness, and that my pride of country had wavered. It managed a twofer- it both insulted me and pissed me off. And yet it was a transparent slander that was challenged by the corporate media. Quite the contrary. Far worse, it was a slander that democratic party politicians acquieced in, either by omission (by refusing to challenge the dangerously onerous bullshit) or commission (“the era of big government is over”). Lest We Forget, Ronald Reagan remains Barack Obama’s beau ideal of a POTUS. That insults and pisses me off, too.
Bill
In fairness, I have a pretty strong dislike for about half of my fellow Americans. (Hate is too strong a word.)
And I question whether Roy Moore – for instance – loves America.
Tree With Water
@Tree With Water: “And yet it was a transparent slander that was challenged..” should read, “went unchallenged”.
Chris
“American exceptionalism” The infantile whining of a child discovering that he’s not as special as he thought.
No, seriously. What does that even mean? For all these people, it’s inextricably tied to an “only in America” sense that we’re the best in the world.
But how are we the “best,” or more exactly what are we the best at? In education, access to health care, whatever, we haven’t been anywhere near the top of the list in a long time, but okay, let’s grant their premise that education means believing whatever the preacher told you about science and that people who can’t afford health care deserve it and judge America only by things they like, like “opportunity.” Well? Are we leading the world in opportunity, the whole “American Dream” thing? How are we doing on employment rates? How are we doing on small business creation? How are we doing on social mobility, e.g. the whole Horatio Alger “only in America” dream you’re always telling us about?
Don’t get me wrong; we’re not doing badly at these things (even, comparatively, things like health care), especially when you consider how many people are still living in third world or fourth world conditions.
But if so much of the developed world is as good as we are or better, then how is America exceptional? What does the whole “in America, if you’re willing to work hard, you can be anything you want” myth mean in a world where there are plenty of other countries where that’s equally true and even more so?
None of this is a bad thing, by the way. I don’t share the obsessive, insecure, pathological need of so many right wingers to be the smartest and prettiest kid in the room at all times and universally praised as such.
Chris
@RepubAnon:
National exceptionalism is one of the least exceptional things in the world. You’d be hard pressed to find any country that doesn’t have this brand of dimbulb.
Republicans want to be the Empire, but be acclaimed as the Rebels.
henqiguai
@Tree With Water(#67):
And further to not forget, you are apparently still an idiot
Chris
@Kay:
It doesn’t matter if it works or not. It’s what a vast majority of the Republican base wants to hear, so there’ll always be a demand for someone to be carrying that kind of message. Staying away from it means you risk getting outshone by the people who are willing to go there.